Floating TV

I don't know if this is normal or not, but I found this TV floating in a pretty lake (aside from all the rubbish floating in the water, it IS pretty!). Do TVs usually float? I would imagine they would sink, but maybe the tube keeps it bobbing on the surface. Poor TV, somebody used to love you... come to think of it, somebody used to love me too. It's painful when somebody deserts you, isn't it, my new little buoyant friend...

UFO

Found this building near a drain/river/water treatment place thingy... I don't know...

Photo shoot

Now this is a cool job... taking photos of a cute girl's butt! Although I guess he is actually photographing all of her, not just her bum. You can see a bigger picture by clicking on the images.


This older guy was making moves on the girl. (He's sitting between me and her). The photographer had to ask him to move out of the shot a couple of times. Then they noticed his car was parked in the background, so he had to move that too. But he didn't give up! I think he was pretty smitten!

Bus shelter guy

This is actually a bus stop on a busy main road. There is a guy living in here, I did actually see him but I wasn't keen to let him see me taking photos. I know, I know, I need to loosen up if I wanna take interesting photos, but I didn't want him coming after me!

I wonder if he gets any income from the advertising on the walls of his home. Sure is a hell of a good location though!

Kanji

Oh the joys of not knowing any Kanji... I bought these pens at a 100 Yen shop, I thought they were pretty cool... four different and bright colours. What I didn't know was that they were all actually the same colour of ink; BLACK! Bastards! If I EVER become Prime Minister, one of the first things I'll do is to abolish Kanji. The second thing will be to... oops... getting ahead of myself here. Must keep my hentai thoughts to myself...

Race Girls

Some of the girls I saw at Twin Ring Motegi. Of course, more pix here


Believe it or not, there are a couple of race girls posing in that crowd, somewhere.

More hot sweaty guys with all the greatest camera gear! I don't understand why a lot of them had such huge zoom lenses for a subject the was only one or two metres away...

Race... part 2

What a cool job... driving an ambulance and getting high at the same time!


I guess this is some kind of rescue vehicle... but what the hell is with those freaky wheels?!

Driving behind a Mafia guy

Sorry, I didn't take a photo... but the other day while driving I was stuck in heavy traffic, that was hardly moving. I noticed what looked like a Mafia car, stopped in a narrow laneway, trying to merge with the heavy traffic. I pulled up and let him in, he bowed to me and waved! That was pretty cool. Until I realised that I was stuck in stop and go traffic, directly behind a very expensive looking black car with solid black windows! I kept my distance for the next couple of kilometers, although I was watching his brake lights intently!

One MONTH?

Holy crap, it's been one month since I updated this blog! Been going through some really tough times recently... I WILL get back on track... eventually...

Now, where did I put that chainsaw and mask...

Another cemetery

It's a bit difficult to see, but there is a cemetery at the bottom of this photo. And I guess a mobile phone tower... I wonder if anybody cares about the possibility of harmful radiation affecting their deceased loved ones. Or maybe it's there to allow people in the after-life to communicate. Another mystery...

Scary dudes

Was just out for a drive when I spotted these characters in a rice(?) field. Looks like somebody had a go at the one second from the right... nearly decapitated!

Hotel ZERO

Probably not the best named love hotel to take your date to. I mean, Hotel ZERO? I suppose it could be named after the fighter planes they used in the war. I don't know. Maybe I should have gone inside and asked.

Want to lose your child?

Was driving behind this car, there were two little kids inside jumping on the back seat and waving their arms in the air as the driver went faster and faster along the mountain road. I took this after we got to a town and the driver slowed down. At one point the kids were jumping so much it looked as though they were gonna pop right out of the sunroof.

It's also still amazing how many parents sit in the front with a child on their lap. Crazy.

Need to pee?

I discovered something interesting... this can of grilled cheese Pringles (very nice, I might add) is totally inadequate in size. I mean, when you are totally busting to pee, there's no toilet nearby, what are you supposed to do? Yes, I could have jumped out of the car and flopped it out, but people over here sometimes stare at gaijin at the best of times. I'd rather not have to deal with their looks while trying to pee. So I went for the Pringles can. No problem... except the can was getting fuller and fuller, and I really didn't want to stop. I finally shut it off when the can was filled to the brim, unfortunately it was really full, overflowing to be honest, and my jeans got wet. I nervously checked around me, nobody watching, so I opened the door, tipped out the can, and went for the second act. What a relief! But maybe I should complain, the can was too small. However the plastic lid did make it easier to take this photo.

Dokdo / Takeshima video

Korean animation about what would happen if Japan tried to take back the disputed islets known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.

More info about the islets here

Chance it!

Sounds good to me!

One of these days I'll have to try pachinko. But I wonder if they'll let me in with a camera. Sounds like an excellent way to get into even more trouble!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko

Dr. Pepper

I'm not sure if this drink is packaged the same in other countries, but over here in J-Land they are using some rather interesting labels. Click on the pix for a bigger version. I'm not really sure what "it" is, when she's offering it a little tighter.

Sorry about the crappy scan.

North Korea missile test

North Korea launched up to six missiles this morning, although all had come down in the Sea of Japan. Four of the missiles were shorter-range Scud-type weapons but officials said that two of them were apparently a long-range Taepodong-2 model.

Chisato Morishita is a much more beautiful model, born in 1981, and at the moment totally distracting me from the fact that we could all be blown to smithereens. Thanks Chisato!

My photo collection

I've decided to link my photography site with this blog. Please go to

http://burnable.zoto.com/

You'll also find many of my photos related to previous posts, including the Japanese Self Defence Force episode, something that I'm not likely to forget.

I was bored... and I was looking through my photo's [WTF? I thought the plural of photo was photo's, with an apostrophe... but it seems that I am horribly wrong. How embarrassing.] Anyway, I was checking my photo collection, and found that I rarely take pix of people. So, rather than actually going outside and risking interacting with actual people (persons?), I spent a couple of minutes (hours?) drawing the above pix. It may be difficult to believe but this really is my own original work, honestly. I'm quite proud of it!

Let's play pachinko!

Hey, this place may look a little shabby, but you can't beat the prices! And no complaints about second hand smoke, no noise, lots of fresh air, and a dead pigeon. Cool! But I won't upload the photo of the pigeon, sorry. I think it's head is missing.

I've driven past this place a few times, but hadn't ventured in until today. At first I just walked around the outside, then worked up the courage to go inside. (I heard some noises from the upper floor... I was worried about Mafia dudes) Took about 20 photo's altogether, and went for a pee in the toilet... hmmm, is that relevant? Well, I was trying to pee, hold my camera, look over my shoulder, and fight off the spiders.

The funny thing about this place is that it looks like the owners left in a hurry; all the machines were still there, paperwork lying around, office equipment, sofa's, dead pigeon, phones. Everything was smashed, or in the case of the bird, headless, but it was all there. AND, I found the only thing that wasn't damaged... a large safe... still locked (how do I know that?? Of course I tried to open it!). Too big and heavy for me to cart away... is it full of cash... or a pigeon head...

A Japanese Nipple

Is this a new tactic to sell more mushrooms? Or is this a kind of magic mushy? Will I be arrested or banned from Blogger for showing pornographic images? Is this mushroom of legal age? And
will this protect me from the North Korean missile that's expected this weekend?

Cremation in Japan

In Japan 99% of all deceased are cremated, which is hardly surprising considering the limited space available here. (Sorry, I've no idea what the other 1% do) Buddhist ceremonies are the most common, and are quite elaborate, with a lot of respect shown for the dead.

In this photo you can see what appears to be at first a mass cremation, but don't be alarmed, the smoke is actually due to a group of old guys burning vegetation, which I might add is illegal in Japan (as far as I know). When I slowly drove past them they all stopped work and glared at me. Maybe they were looking for something more exciting to burn than dead leaves. Actually I really wish I had gotten a photo of their evil glaring, but I'm not bold enough at the moment. Maybe later, after I stop repeatedly checking over my shoulder for the military guys.

Japanese Self Defence Force

Well, today was a rather unusual day... I suddenly decided to go for a drive to a Japanese Self Defence Force base, just for fun, and to see the jets. Anyway, when I got near the base I checked my car-navi and turned down a really narrow dirt track that seemed to run up to the perimeter fence. (Didn't have permission to go inside of course. And after today, I guess I'll never be allowed inside) Parked the car in amongst the trees near the fence, hopped out with the camera, and waited for something to happen...

Something happened...

I was there for only a couple of minutes when a truck pulled up with two guys who I assume were military police. Behind that another truck with military dudes in the back. (Oh, one of them may have been a girl, I'm not sure; obviously I was more concerned with the police-types). Anyway, the two guys walked up to their side of the fence, started questioning me. They were VERY polite and friendly, but wanted to see some ID. Then they got on the phone and another
police-type turned up, this one with a camera! So they took my photo (they actually asked if it was ok, so I guess I could have refused, but I didn't want to push my luck), and another photo of my ID. So I took their pix as well. Then they wanted a pix of my car, but I said no... don't ask why, I really don't know why I refused. Anyway, they seemed pretty sad.


One of them was spending a lot of time on the phone, but not within earshot... maybe he was asking his boss if he could strap me to a bomb... although they really were very kind. They even remarked on how good my car looked. I mean, they asked me lots of casual questions, but within the casual questions there were many serious questions... I think their interrogation techniques are extremely good.

After that, they sent me on my merry way (all up I think it took about 20 or 30 minutes, maybe), and I stumbled across a proper road near another section of the fence, BUT this area was full of people watching the jets, and it was very open (no trees); so I guess it was ok to stop there.
I was sitting in the car for about 5 minutes, when I saw the truck with the police dudes driving along the fence line... oh crap... but they sped past... waving and grinning madly at me!! Couldn't believe it!
Later in the day I noticed a car that was an unusual blue colour following me... I pulled over and let it pass, and snapped a photo. When I got home and checked the pix on the pc we found by it's number plate that it was a military vehicle... am I being watched???

Those crazy Japanese chimps

Why have they made it so difficult to upload a larger number of images? I'm sure there is at least ONE person who would love to see some of the pix I've taken. That`s what I choose to believe.

Anyway, this is a pedestrian bridge over a local highway. Unless they had a fire truck, and blocked traffic, they had to have painted this while hanging from the railing or something. I don't know. Does it matter? What I'd like to know is what the hell is the message??

Just did a search on Google for AI1...
http://www.pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ai/gallery/gallerye.htm
"The drawings by chimpanzees" Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University. Maybe some of their chimps escaped and are running around town with cans of paint. Cool! They can't spell, but I'm impressed with their English ability! I'll attempt to keep you posted.

Mystery shopping

Hmmm... Well, today I wanted to get myself some tooth whitener (why? Because the voices in my head told me to, ok?). Anyway, my level of kanji being what it is, I'm not 100% sure exactly what I've bought. I mean it could be denture glue for all I know. And even more worrying is the fact that I don't have a clue how to use this stuff. Just as well we have Babel Fish Translation...

This “[howaitoningujieru]”, without damaging the tooth, melting, you take the soiling which comes in contact with the tooth with washing removal component PEG combination.

Pretty cool hey!

The tooth is made white, [yani] of the tooth is taken, there is an effect such that prevents the carious tooth, prevents the composure of the dental calculus.

Now, I'm probably going to appear even more stupid than I already look, but I had to look up some of those words. Apparently calculus or tartar refers to hardened plaque on the teeth. And carious is to do with decay. So there you have it, I learnt something new. Until I forget it. Still doesn't help me to actually use this stuff though does it. And I'm not sure if I want my [yani] to be taken from my teeth either.

Now what??

Well, I seem to have finally created a blob of a blog. Got nothing to say for the moment, and who can blame me... I mean I had to really stretch my imagination to think of a title, username, password, and all the other paraphernalia (thanks for the spell checker) that comes with opening a new account.